IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecaffa/v45y2025i2p244-260.html

The legacy of cypherpunk in the modern economy

Author

Listed:
  • Kris Kaleta

Abstract

This article explores how the cypherpunk movement – advocating privacy, digital sovereignty, and digital decentralisation – shaped modern economic paradigms, particularly cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance. Originating in the late twentieth century, its principles laid the groundwork for blockchain technologies and challenged state‐centric monetary systems. The analysis connects cypherpunk ideology to historical debates on money and governance, evaluating its implications for the contemporary institutional framework. By tracing the evolution of these ideas, the study underscores their enduring influence on twenty‐first century economic practices, illustrating how decentralised systems redefine agency and accountability in economic interactions.

Suggested Citation

  • Kris Kaleta, 2025. "The legacy of cypherpunk in the modern economy," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 244-260, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:45:y:2025:i:2:p:244-260
    DOI: 10.1111/ecaf.12704
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12704
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecaf.12704?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fabian Schär, 2021. "Decentralized Finance: On Blockchain- and Smart Contract-Based Financial Markets," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 103(2), pages 153-174, April.
    2. Rainer Böhme & Nicolas Christin & Benjamin Edelman & Tyler Moore, 2015. "Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    3. Hassan, Samer & De Filippi, Primavera, 2021. "Decentralized Autonomous Organization," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 10(2), pages 1-10.
    4. Desmond Ng, 2021. "Balancing Agency with Structure: Institutional Entrepreneurship as an Embedded Discovery Process," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 7(2), pages 147-164, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goldberg, Mitchell & Schär, Fabian, 2023. "Metaverse governance: An empirical analysis of voting within Decentralized Autonomous Organizations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Carlo Gola & Valentina Cappa & Patrizio Fiorenza & Paolo Granata & Federica Laurino & Lorenzo Lesina & Francesco Lorizzo & Gabriele Marcelli, 2023. "The governance of blockchains and system based on distributed ledger technology," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 773, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Huei-Wen Teng & Wolfgang Karl Härdle & Joerg Osterrieder & Daniel Traian Pele & Lennart John Baals & Vassilios Papavassiliou & Karolina Bolesta & Audrius Kabašinskas & Olivija Filipovska & Nikolaos S., 2026. "Digital assets: risks, regulations, mitigation," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 12(1), pages 1-48, December.
    4. Shahriari, Hesam & Stivers, Adam & Tsang, Ming, 2025. "Bias in cryptocurrency investing: The effect of financial and moral considerations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    5. Schmück, Kilian & Schückes, Magnus & Gutmann, Tobias & Gassmann, Oliver, 2025. "Less trust, more truth: Implications and design choices for business models and platform ecosystems in the age of Web3," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    6. Peter Fratrič & Giovanni Sileno & Sander Klous & Tom Engers, 2022. "Manipulation of the Bitcoin market: an agent-based study," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    7. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    8. Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2018. "Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Ilya Ivaninskiy & Irina Ivashkovskaya & Joseph A. McCahery, 2023. "Does digitalization mitigate or intensify the principal-agent conflict in a firm?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(3), pages 695-725, September.
    10. Christie Smith & Aaron Kumar, 2018. "Crypto‐Currencies – An Introduction To Not‐So‐Funny Moneys," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1531-1559, December.
    11. Volker Brühl, 2025. "How will the digital euro work? A preliminary analysis of design, structures, and challenges," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 35(1), pages 1-12, December.
    12. Wu, WenTing & Chen, XiaoQian & Zvarych, Roman & Huang, WeiLun, 2024. "The Stackelberg duel between Central Bank Digital Currencies and private payment titans in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    13. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    14. Matkovskyy, Roman, 2019. "Centralized and decentralized bitcoin markets: Euro vs USD vs GBP," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 270-279.
    15. Svetlana Abramova & Rainer Böhme & Helmut Elsinger & Helmut Stix & Martin Summer, 2022. "What can CBDC designers learn from asking potential users? Results from a survey of Austrian residents (Svetlana Abramova, Rainer Böhme, Helmut Elsinger, Helmut Stix, Martin Summer)," Working Papers 241, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    16. White, Reilly & Marinakis, Yorgos & Islam, Nazrul & Walsh, Steven, 2020. "Is Bitcoin a currency, a technology-based product, or something else?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Pieters, Gina & Vivanco, Sofia, 2017. "Financial regulations and price inconsistencies across Bitcoin markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-14.
    18. Christian Sillaber & Bernhard Waltl & Horst Treiblmaier & Ulrich Gallersdörfer & Michael Felderer, 2021. "Laying the foundation for smart contract development: an integrated engineering process model," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 863-882, September.
    19. Ellie Rennie & Michael Zargham & Joshua Tan & Luke Miller & Jonathan Abbott & Kelsie Nabben & Primavera de Filippi, 2022. "Towards a participatory digital ethnography of blockchain governance," Post-Print hal-03882048, HAL.
    20. Parthajit Kayal & Purnima Rohilla, 2021. "Bitcoin in the economics and finance literature: a survey," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(7), pages 1-21, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:45:y:2025:i:2:p:244-260. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0265-0665 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.